I'm not very good at EV spreads, so... Which is a better spread for a physical offensive Steelix with Sheer Force/Life Orb?
252 Sp.Def/128 Atk/128 HP
252 Sp.Def/252 Atk/4 HP
It's supposed to hit hard, but HP would also be very nice. Opinions?

Iron Tail Has 254 (253,5 base) power, Sheer Force, Life Orb and STAB included.Earthquake Does take Life Orb recoil unfortunately, but is a good STAB option.Rock Slide Has 127 base power which is good and it gives some additional coverage. Rock Slide is chosen over Stone Edge because Stone Edge doesn't get the Sheer Force boost and therefore gets Life Orb Recoil.Crunch Gives a reliable way of hitting Psychic types and Ghost types, and doesn't take Life Orb recoil.

Stealth Rock is what makes this guy a lead, go put some rocks on the battlefield. Toxic is to stall. Earthquake is STAB, covers fire and gets rid of electrics. Gyro is also STAB, and paired up with low speed it's great.

This is my "I'm not sure of what type of Steelix it is" SteelixGen V
Ability:Sturdy
Item:Quick claw Smooth rock
**Impish nature (+Def -SpAtk) Personality (I observe that this is often overlooked but it is a vital part of stat gain) Sturdy body capable of taking hits ect:252 ev's Def 200 Atk 56 SpDef

Moveset:Sandstorm: Ongoing damage (beware of rock steel and ground types as well as any Pokemon with "sand" ability's which dont take damage.)Stealth rock:set up some more continuousness damage on Pokemon that switch in( paired with dragon tail is pretty epic!)Dragon tail: (as promised) forces switch ins also creating damage in the process.Toxic: powerful ongoing damage (you can probably see the reason by now)

The idea here is to poison and generally weaken your opponents as much possible so your follow up Pokemon (normally straight forward powerhouses) to mop up whats left.Start off with sandstorm (much better with smooth rock,the quick claw is just so it doesn't always miss out on being first which can be useful) then setting up S-rock. Toxic obviously to follow and finally Dragon tail .Continue to use toxic then Drg Tail to poison the whole opposition occasionally topping off sandstorm as you go. Thanks to steelix's defensive skills this could be repeated a fair few times before he gets KO'd. This Steelix can be used harmony with its corresponding Audino in double battles which I will post shortly.

Specially defensive spread makes you quite bulky on both sides of the spectrum. Curse can then just be used to raise your attack and already OP defense. You can run Sleep Talk for continuing to set up during a Rest, or Earthquake for more coverage and your secondary STAB. Gyro Ball is just a great move in general for Steelix, although you can run Heavy Slam if you're worried about PP.

Bulky attacker. Steelix is a little too slow for setting up the Sandstorm unliek Swampert, so it's better to just go fully offensive. Earthquake, Gyro Ball, and Stone Edge make use of Sand Force, then Stealth Rock or Dragon Tail completes the set with hazards or phazing.

Phazing moves (roar, dragon tail etc) always have negative priority, apart from in one case: when they have been used via Sleep Talk. This set takes advantage of that and Onix's decent base 70 speed to shuffle the opponent's team around before they can even get a hit on you. This strategy works very well in conjunction with entry hazards.

iron head-STAB and if fast enough good chance of flinching or if steelixes abilety is sheer force then the move will get a boost

dragon tail\earthquake\rock slide\crunch\thunder fang- decent damage and switches opponet out(dragon tail), deadly STAB and coverge(earthquake), coverege and good chance of flinching or if using sheer force the move is getting a boost(rock slide),good strong move has a good chance of lowering defence or if using sheer force abilety getts a demege boost(crunch), coverge a chance to make opponet flinch or paralyzed and if using sheer force abilety the move gets a demege boost(thunder fang)

steelix
ability: rock head
ev spread: 252 defense 252 attack
moveset:
earthquake: high 100 base power and deals with: fire weakness
stone edge: moderate accuracy, high base power and has a higher chance of landing a critical hit
thunder fang: moderate accuracy and power and deals with water weakness
ice fang: just like thunder fang but deals with ground weakness

note: I am not the REAL Pokemon expert. and this moveset is used to make steelix deal with 3 out of 4 of its weaknesses. if you think this oveset sucks, pleae suggest on changes. And hey, i'm just ten.

this set is as tanky as it possible gets considering his defense and low attack i suggest you look at all your pokemon moves before and stats before you make a decision i recomend eartquake roar stealth rock and gryo ball this set is very main stream so to say but it works well in theory because steelix as you notice has alot of weakness and as soon as you come in with him hes only going take a couple hits before they get mad and switch to someone that can do something with steelix and you gotta predict things like this to use roar to your advantage another set would be curse rest gryo ball and earthquake for this set you are combining curse and gyro to work together for the speed wise and once he is low on hp use rest with a chesto berry and the other person team will be pretty close to where they started at. ive looked at his move pool and he has some very nice moves you can do many things with him like a stall but you can do alot with other poke its a matter of what your team needs and what you need/want